Equality Commission investigation into the NIO Legacy Bill

Daniel Holder of CAJ said:

“We welcome this investigation report by ECNI, which shines a light on haphazard Donald Trump-like policy making on legacy by the NIO. Its notable that the NIO departed from applying its Equality Scheme procedures properly at the same time that it unilaterally ditched the Stormont House Agreement.

“An equality assessment should have been carried out and made available on the policy at the earliest possible stage to highlight the impact of this change would have, including on victims and their families.”

Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre said: “Whilst the NIO should have provided an equality assessment on the legacy bill to us, and that was the source of our complaint, it is doubly concerning that the NIO also refused to provide the documents to Equality Commission investigators.”

The CAJ / PFC complaint

The complaint centred on NIO’s withholding of its equality assessment on changed NI legacy policy, which was initially requested by CAJ after NIO unilaterally departed from the Stormont House Agreement in March 2020 and instead developed an alternative legacy bill (1). According to NIO’s own Equality Scheme, this policy change required it to conduct an equality assessment (an ‘equality screening’) at the “earliest opportunity”, and to make the resulting document available upon request.

The NIO later contended they would not provide this equality assessment as, despite the passage of time, it was “not completed”. The NIO maintains it did carry out initial equality screening exercises, but despite ECNI exercising formal powers of investigation under Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act, the NIO refused to provide the documents in question to investigators. (2). It also maintains discussions took place with the Secretary of State on the equality screening but did not provide any records or other evidence of this (3).

ECNI’s full investigation report is available here.

-ENDS-

Footnotes

1. A decision that was set out by the Secretary of State Brandon Lewis in a Written Ministerial Statement on the 18 March 2020. 
2. See paragraphs 4.16/4.45 of ECN’s investigation report.
3. See paragraphs 3.35-6.

Daniel Holder of CAJ is available for interview.

Notes to editors

• The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is an independent, non-governmental human rights organisation, which works to ensure that the administration of justice in Northern Ireland is compatible with the highest international human rights standards. 
• See www.caj.org.uk for further information on CAJ and its work.
• The Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) provides advocacy support to families and individuals bereaved and injured as a result of the conflict on the island of Ireland. The PFC is a non-party political, anti-sectarian human rights group advocating a non-violent resolution of the conflict on the island of Ireland.